| The Captain & the Kid | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 18 September 2006 | |||
| Recorded | Spring 2006 | |||
| Studio | Center Staging, Atlanta | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 45:59 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer |
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| Elton John chronology | ||||
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The Captain & the Kid is the twenty-eighth studioalbum by British musicianElton John, released in 2006. It is his second autobiographical album with lyricistBernie Taupin, picking up whereCaptain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975) left off.The Captain & the Kid chronicles the events in their lives over the intervening three decades.
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 69/100[1] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [2] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [3] |
| Entertainment Weekly | A−[4] |
| The Independent | [5] |
| Los Angeles Times | [6] |
| PopMatters | 4/10[7] |
| Rolling Stone | [8] |
| This Is London | [9] |
The Captain & the Kid reached No. 6 on theUK Albums Chart, a considerable improvement over the performance of John's precedingPeachtree Road in 2004, which peaked at No. 21.Captain reached No. 18 on the USBillboard 200, before quickly falling off the charts. At concerts in early 2007, John made clear his dissatisfaction withInterscope Records' promotion of the album, having threatened to terminate his contract with the label and because of that, John did not release a solo album until 2013'sThe Diving Board.
According toBernie Taupin, Elton John's manager at the time,Merck Mercuriadis, suggested in 2005 that John and Taupin write a follow-up toCaptain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy.[10]
Interscope Records announced that there would be no physical single released from this album as the emphasis was on presenting the album as abody of work, making the album his third afterTumbleweed Connection andLeather Jackets to lack any Top 40 singles on theUK singles chart (as John, during that time, still hit the Top 40 in the USAdult Contemporary chart).[11][12]
However, aradio single would be released in "The Bridge". The album's booklet has photos of John and Taupin all throughout their career, and in the lyrics section, two songs are included, "Across the River Thames" and "12", which do not appear on the album. "Across the River Thames" was available as a free download to anyone who played the CD on a computer. The song "And the House Fell Down" is based (metaphorically) on the storyThe Three Little Pigs.[13] This is the first album recorded by John and Taupin to show them together on the front cover.
It was also the last studio album to featureGuy Babylon on keyboards; he died in 2009. This was alsoBob Birch's last appearance on any of John's solo studio albums before his own death in August 2012 (Birch last appeared on theGnomeo and Juliet soundtrack).
All tracks are written byElton John andBernie Taupin.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Postcards fromRichard Nixon" | 5:15 |
| 2. | "Just Like Noah's Ark" | 5:33 |
| 3. | "Wouldn't Have You Any Other Way (NYC)" | 4:38 |
| 4. | "Tinderbox" | 4:25 |
| 5. | "And the House Fell Down" | 4:48 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 6. | "Blues Never Fade Away" | 4:45 |
| 7. | "The Bridge" | 3:38 |
| 8. | "I Must Have Lost It on the Wind" | 3:53 |
| 9. | "Old '67" | 4:01 |
| 10. | "The Captain and the Kid" | 5:03 |
| Total length: | 45:59 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 11. | "Across the River Thames" | 4:31 |
| Total length: | 50:30 | |
| Song | Availability |
|---|---|
| "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" (live) | Best Buy (CD included download link)/iTunes |
| "We All Fall in Love Sometimes/Curtains" (live) | Best Buy (CD included download link) |
| "Tell Me When the Whistle Blows" (live) | iTunes |
| "(Gotta Get a) Meal Ticket" (live) | iTunes |
| "Better Off Dead" (live) | iTunes |
Producer Matt Still noted during an interview that in "Just Like Noah's Ark", John's black and white spaniel dog Arthur "barked in the middle of [the recording], because John Mahon was playing a cowbell, and the cowbell freaked him out. So he ran over to John and started barking at him right in the middle of a take. It's funny, just randomly he happened to hit the beats and he barked in time. So I recorded it and we actually kept him in there."
The sampled "woof-bells" can be heard in place of the cowbell on the track.
| Chart (2006) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA)[16] | 37 |
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[17] | 37 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[18] | 99 |
| Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[19] | 26 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[20] | 43 |
| French Albums (SNEP)[21] | 56 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[22] | 25 |
| Italian Albums (FIMI)[23] | 21 |
| Japanese Albums Chart[24] | 100 |
| Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[25] | 10 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC)[26] | 8 |
| Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[27] | 52 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[28] | 27 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[29] | 10 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[30] | 6 |
| USBillboard 200[31] | 18 |
| US Indie Store Album Sales (Billboard)[32] | 14 |
| USTop Alternative Albums (Billboard)[33] | 7 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI)[34] | Silver | 60,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
